THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.
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proportion as that of butcher’s meat, it ought naturally torise somewhat, and it ought certainly not to fall.
In England, however, notwithstanding the flourishingstate of its woollen manufacture, the price of English woolhas fallen very considerably since the time of Edward HI .There are many authentic records which demonstrate thatduring the reign of that prince (towards the middle of thefourteenth century, or about 1339) what was reckoned themoderate and reasonable price of the tod or twenty-eightpounds of English wool, was not less than ten shillings ofthe money of those times,* containing, at the rate of twenty-pence the ounce, six ounces of silver Tower-weight, equalto about thirty shillings of our present money. In the pre-sent times, one-and-twenty shillings the tod may be reckoneda good price for very good English wool. The money-price of wool, therefore, in the time of Edward III . was toits money-price in the present times as ten to seven. Thesuperiority of its real price was still greater. At the rate ofsix shillings and eight-pence the quarter, ten shillings was inthose ancient times the price of twelve bushels of wheat. Atthe rate of twenty-eight shillings the quarter, one-and-twentyshillings is in the present times the price of six bushels only.The proportion between the real prices of ancient and modern times, therefore, is as twelve to six, or as two to one.In those ancient times a tod of wool would have purchasedtwice the quantity of subsistence which it will purchase atpresent; and consequently twice the quantity of labour, ifthe real recompense of labour had been the same in bothperiods.
This degradation, both in the real and nominal value ofwool, could never have happened in consequence of thenatural course of things. It has accordingly been the effectof violence and artifice: First, of the absolute prohibition ofexporting wool from England: Secondly, of the permissionot importing it from Spain duty free: Thirdly, of the pro-hibition of exporting it from Ireland to any other country butEngland. In consequence of these regulations, the marketfor English wool, instead of being somewhat extended,in consequence of the improvement of England, has beenconfined to the home market, where the wool of several othercountries is allowed to come into competition with it, andwhere that of Ireland is forced into competition with it. As
* See Smith’s Memoirs of Wool, vol.i. c. ft, ti, and 7 ; also vol. ii. c. 17(i.